Saturday, March 22, 2014

SIMPLE SOUP AND A SALAD-- HEALTHFUL AND DELICIOUS

Since I've been limping around with what appears to be "water-on-the-knee" I haven't exactly been cooking up a storm. It's getting better, but I'm nervous about "2 steps forward, 1 step back", so I'm being careful.

I made two simple dishes on Monday, to have on hand for lunches and snacks. The soup is an old favorite, which I'm going to reproduce below, but the salad was a new one. I had purchased some frozen green garbanzo beans from Costco-- something new to me-- and decided to devise a nice hearty grain and veggie salad utilizing them. ( I had previously used them in place of frozen lima beans in my lowfat guacamole recipes and they worked well in that.) The salad was delicious and I'll definitely be making it again.

To cook the farro, place in a medium pot with 3 cups of
water and a few pinches of salt. Bring to a boil and quickly turn down to low
heat. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, or until done to your taste, but not
mushy. Immediately drain thoroughly and then spread on a baking sheet and place
in the freezer or refrigerator to cool it off while you prepare the other
ingredients.

Make the Spicy Vinaigrette by combining all the
ingredients well and setting aside.

Combine all of the salad ingredients, including the
cooked, drained and cooled-down farro. Shake or whisk the dressing again and pour over
the salad. Mix well and chill until ready to serve. (This can be served at room
temperature or cold.)

Bring the lentils and broth to a
boil together in a large pot, turn down to a simmer, cover and cook for 30
minutes.

In the meantime, sauté the onions in
the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium- high heat until they soften,
adding squirts of water as needed to keep from sticking. (Alternatively, you can cook the onions in the olive oil in a
microwave-safe bowl or casserole, covered for about 5 minutes on 100% power.)
Add the garlic and sauté a minute more (or microwave for 30 seconds). Add to
the pot (you don't have to wait until the
30 minutes are over) with the basil and coriander.

After the 30 minutes are up, add the
noodles and simmer for another 10 minutes or so, or until the noodles are
cooked. Add the greens and cook briefly, just until they are cooked to your
taste. Taste for salt and pepper.

Serve with lemon wedges and squeeze
a little lemon juice into each serving before eating.

6 comments:

I walked a bit too much with Earl last week and ended up with a bit of water on the knee as well so I have complete and utter sympathy for you Bryanna. The soup looks amazing, the salad looks amazing but good luck to me finding either green chickpeas or edamame here in Tasmania where "soy beans" are a curiosity! ;) I will sub in some broad beans as they will do nicely :)

i've been looking for green garbanzos for months but neither my trader joes or whole foods ever stocked them. I finally found them in an Indian market, the smaller chana variety anyway. We don't love the chewiness of the wheat berries in my house, so we used quinoa instead. It was great.

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